A New Dawn, A New Day

Well, that was one fabulous Christmas and I'm quite sad that it has all come to an end.
Being somebody who does not enjoy the stress induced panic attacks of last minute shopping, all of my shopping was completed by the end of November.  This left me all of December to relax and enjoy the important family traditions that make the most beautiful of memories.  And Oh Boy did we have a busy month, starting with the kids singing in a national choir with 3000 other children in Dublin.  We decided to stay over that weekend and had our first clumsy attempts at ice skating, heading home with sore bottoms and faces that ached from laughing.
We spent lovely afternoons baking with my mother (which we don't do near often enough), making decorations for the tree and knitting gifts for some relations.  There was the nativity play and the end of term play too.  Lucy missed the latter because she had both her big toenails removed just 5 days before Christmas.  She cried in the doctor's surgery when she found out about this, not because she was scared of getting the surgery but because she had the lead in the school play and would not be fit to attend.

Christmas week was just as relaxing.  Full of lazy mornings watching tv with the kids, going for walks in the afternoon and knitting while listening to my favourite audiobooks.  I've thoroughly enjoyed getting back to my needles after hooking for the past year.  I hadn't realised just how much I had missed them.  Now I have a long list of makes just waiting to be cast on.
I even managed to get out a few times over the holidays with my Hubby, having dinner with friends and going out on New Years Eve for the first time in 10 years!! To wind up the season, last weekend there was a huge party for my Hubby's 40th birthday and I made the most of the night and boogied my (not so little) behind off.  It was such great fun with lots of laughter and long chats people there that I hadn't seen for a while.

Looking back over the last month has made me realise that major changes need to be made in my life.  The past year I became too tied to my little hidey hole, the house, reluctant to come out more than once a week and quite happy to stay that way.  But I now see that even though I might be content with this, I've been missing far to much of the life that is going on without me.  I love meeting people, whether they are old friends or new ones and I'm never going to do that while I'm stuck here in my rut.
My resolution for this year is simply to get out of the house more. To meet up with friends, go out for dinner, go shopping or simply to go for a walk with the dog.  I want to fill my day the best that my body allows and be able to go to bed at night tired and satisfied that another day has not been wasted.
So for me this is a new start, a new dawn and a new day.  And who knows just where this tiny little change will bring me?

Hope to catch up with you all very soon,
Rosie xx